GlaxoSmithKline refusing to supply International Canadian Pharmacies

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

Effective January 21, 2003, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has refused to supply its products to any Canadian pharmacy that fills prescriptions for customers in the United States. They want to ensure that you continue paying the highest drug prices in the world. By refusing to supply Canadian International Pharmacies with their product, they are forcing you to buy within the United States. Essentially, they are revoking your Right of Choice so that they can make more profits.

We can NOT allow this happen.

YOU MUST ACT NOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF and your family, even if you don't use prescription drugs made by GSK.

IF GSK IS SUCCESSFUL, ALL OTHER DRUG MANUFACTURERS WILL FOLLOW SUIT SO THAT THEY, TOO, CAN PROTECT THEIR PROFITS.

GSK continues to claim that buying prescription drugs from Canada "...puts patients at risk". When in fact Canada has a world-class drug regulatory system. Canadians are prescribed the same medications, made by the same drug companies as those used in the United States.

The ONLY real issue is PROFITS! And greatest profits are generated in the United States.

Today Americans are speaking out and saying "NO" to GSK who are compromising your health and well-being.

Here's what YOU can do:

1.Write to GSK directly.

Jean-Pierre Garnier, CEO

GlaxoSmithKline - USA

5 Moore Drive

PO Box 13398

Research Triangle Park, NC

27709

As well as:

Steven Popp, Director, Customer Operations & Distribution Strategy

GlaxoSmithKline - Canada

Bureau d'affaires du Canada

8455 route Transcanadienne

Saint-Laurent (Quebec)

Canada H4S 1Z1

And, if you can, copy your elected representatives and the media.

2. Make sure YOUR voice is heard

· Call CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox.

· Call your local media.

· Go to our website at www.realfastdrugstore.com/congress_f.htm and type your zip code in the box labeled "Contact Congress" to find your State & Federal officials.

Bottom of Form

You need to tell them how important it is that you have the freedom to choose to buy your medicine at a price you can afford.

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

I had heard that this was a possibility. I get my prescriptions for one third the price from Canada. American drug prices are ridiculous. Why are we supporting high prices in the US when clearly the exact same drug can be had across the border ( in my case, 2 miles away) for one third the price?

[go star go]

because drug companies get sued in the US and have to pay grandma a trillion dollars because grandma took too much of her medicine and od'ed... crap like that...

[TC Rider]

Careful, you're opening a can of worms. I work in Pharma and specifically with a bunch of ex glaxo people.

Someone has to pay for R&D. While Canada and most of the rest of world have single payer coverage, so pharm deals with one contract for the entire country. They end up with cost+ deals, usually far undercutting US prices.

By default, the US pays for the R&D. The fair thing to do is to raise all Worldwide prices to cover R&D. This is like the 1% who pay the bulk of taxes in the US. Except this allows all Americans to be screwed equally. (except for those close to Canada and Mexico. My parents regularly go on drug runs from Vegas to Mexico.)

[El Gato]

Our right to choose does not override the company's right to sell or not to sell. One of two things is happening here. Either the Canandian drugs are subsidized, or there is some large cost in the US market that is not present in the Canadian market, such as higher insurance,litigation, or regulatory costs. If the US companies could sell a product in the US at the lower prices, they would, or their competitors would and they would be driven out of the market. Profit is not dirty word. I'll bet the folks who run those websites through which one can buy presciption drugs from Canada make some.

[hgro]

Being retired applies a burden on ill people or those who need drugs to maintain their health. The Canadians are like leeches who literally suck the blood out of drug prices. Its about time that Canada starts financing their own drugs and not try to load up the medical system of our country with their socialistic crap.

[pepsionice]

My question is simple....with all the effort that the Colombian drug cartels do with cocaine and grass...why don't they start a drug copy-cat program and sell US legal drugs at cut-rate prices? I bet ole Grandma would love to run down the street to her dealer and pick up blood pressure medicine for 20 percent of the price you have to pay at the drug store. I understand research and development....and I fully support that. But I also realize that the only of the 'profit' of the US drugs....is really for research and development...and the rest runs off into the pockets of the VIPs, vendors, distribution companies, etc. Go to any drug company and ask for the list of the top 200 employees of the company...and look at the benifits package...not the pay package. They all get SUV company vehicles, paid vacations to the Bahamas, etc. Its a tremendous amount of money that is simply laying in the bathtub of the these companies VIPs...and thats really money from Grandma...which she can't afford to toss into a SUV for the HR Chief of some drug company.

[hymanrothretiredinvestor]

If you don't like the price; buy a different product! For me, I like having efficacious products and thank the Drug Co's for risking their $ to provide them.

[Mamzelle]

Some drugs cost more in Canada--particularly the older ones.

[SKI NOW]

"If you don't like the price; buy a different product!"

Exactly, or ask your Doctor to prescribe a drug that is genericly available. Whether your insurance will pay for the brand or not.

[Benrand]

The ratio of profitable drugs to non-profitables is amazing when you think of it. They MUST spend on R+D because they only get it right a small persentage of the time.

I agree with Glaxo. let's keep our std of living high.

[badfreeper]

"One of two things is happening here. Either the Canandian drugs are subsidized, or there is some large cost in the US market that is not present in the Canadian market, such as higher insurance,litigation, or regulatory costs."

Actually, it's advertising. Prescription drug advertising is severely limited in Canada. Contrast that with the mutli-multi-billion dollar promotional budgets of US companies. Also, Canadian companies have 17 years of exclusivity before generics can be made, vs. 10.5 in the US.

"If the US companies could sell a product in the US at the lower prices, they would, or their competitors would and they would be driven out of the market."

Supply and demand is a major factor as well. Americans use 42% of the world's prescription medicines. Canadians, per capita, about half that.

"Profit is not dirty word. I'll bet the folks who run those websites through which one can buy presciption drugs from Canada make some."

Darn right they do. Granted my comparison was limited to the one drug I take (Zyrtec, sold in Canada as Reactine) but based on a survey of three companies' sites that ship to the US, the cost (before shipping) was about double that of the drugstore around the corner.

Even if the flow of mail order meds is stopped, there's nothing the drug companies can do about people crossing the border to purchase their drugs. The strengh of the US dollar makes Canada a cheap holiday destination too.

[bigjoesaddle]

Part of this, as mentioned by others, is regulation of drug prices by Canada. Do you think it's fair that Americans pay more, and basicly pay for research of drugs, and the Canadians get the benefits of this, without paying for it?

Because of Canada price controls, we are supporting Canadian Socialism, I'm glad someone is saying "no". This company will probably loose some money doing this, by the way.

[frnewsjunkie]

I have a son who is an attorney for GlaxoSmithKline.

I also am retired, and have to pay for my prescriptions.

You young people can pay for all the R&D you want. I have paid into the "system" for all these years. I am sick of the world expecting the US citizens to pay for the world's R&D..... and everything else. UK and Canada gets their drugs at almost half the price I have to pay.

This is some more of "America can carry the load for the world" stuff.

BTW... GSK is a UK company... with offices in Research Triangle.

[Snowyman]

or there is some large cost in the US market that is not present in the Canadian market,

Advertising and freebies to doctors are the main reason but you have to search under all the camouflage before you find it.

Pharmaceutical Facts

The “Research-based” pharmaceutical industry spends more on marketing and administration than it does on research and development. (Families USA)

U.S. Drug spending increased 17.1% to $154.5 billion dollars in 2001. One-quarter of this increase was due to a shift to the use of more expensive drugs. (National Institute for Health Care Management)

The top selling drug in 2001 was Lipitor. Increase in Lipitor sales contributed more than any other single drug to the increase in drug costs that year (NIHCM). The effect of Lipitor on cardiovascular morbidity and mortality remains unknown.

Pharmaceutical industry profits were 18.5% of revenue in 2001. For the remainder of Fortune 500 companies, median profits were 3.5% (FamiliesUSA). Since 1995, R&D staff of U.S. brand name drug companies have decreased by 2%, while marketing staff have increased by 59%. Currently, 22% of staff are employed in research and development, while 39% are in marketing. (PhRMA Industry Profile 2000; percentages calculated by Sager and Socolar)

In a study by Avorn, et al, forty-six per-cent of physicians reported that drug reps are moderately to very important in influencing their prescribing habits (Am Journal of Med, 1982).

Two and one-half billion dollars were spent on advertising to consumers in 2000. Increases in the sales of the 50 drugs most heavily advertised to consumers were responsible for almost half (47.8%) of the $20.8 billion increase in spending in 2000.(NIHCM)

In 2000, Merck spent $161 million on advertising for Vioxx. That is more than Pepsico spent advertising Pepsi. ($125 million), and more than Anheuser-Busch spent advertising Budweiser.($146 million). The increase in Vioxx sales in 2000 accounted for 5.7% of the 1 year increase in drug spending. (NIHCM)

A study by Westfall, et al, found that 96% of physicians and staff had taken samples for personal or family use in the preceding year. (JAMA, 1997)

According to industry estimates, drug companies spent $15.7 billion dollars on promotion in 2000. $7.2 billion dollars worth of free samples were distributed that year(IMS Health).

The AMA generates $20 million in annual income by selling detailed personal and professional information on all doctors practicing in the United States to the pharmaceutical industry (NY Times, November 16, 2000).

[badfreeper]

"You young people can pay for all the R&D you want. I have paid into the "system" for all these years. I am sick of the world expecting the US citizens to pay for the world's R&D..... and everything else. UK and Canada gets their drugs at almost half the price I have to pay."

Read the figures in Snowyman's #14, your prescription dollar doesn't just go into R&D. Here is what is generally said in any Canadian prescription drug ad:

"There is a new treatment for (insert condition here). For more information, talk to your doctor."

It's very difficult for doctors to say no to a patient when they come in and demand a prescription drug by name, even if the doctor is unconvinced of it's effectiveness. Excepting narcotics, when someone asks for medicine they almost always get it, even if another would be as or more effective at a lower cost.

If you're not in a position to pay through the nose and your son can't get you some freebies, vote with your feet and buy in Canada or the UK. When one company spends more to advertise one drug than the #2 cola company spends you've got to wonder. Dress warm if you're coming up soon.

[aculeus]

Effective January 21, 2003, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has refused to supply its products to any Canadian pharmacy that fills prescriptions for customers in the United States.

Great news! Pfizer is also fighting France's government buyer. Let the rest of the world start paying a full price and our prices will decline. Bank on it.

[TC Rider]

Go to any drug company and ask for the list of the top 200 employees of the company...and look at the benifits package...not the pay package. They all get SUV company vehicles, paid vacations to the Bahamas, etc. Its a tremendous amount of money that is simply laying in the bathtub of the these companies VIPs...and thats really money from Grandma...which she can't afford to toss into a SUV for the HR Chief of some drug company.

Perhaps you can take advantage of Cuba's health care system, no millionaires there.

I have and continue to work with some of the GSK execs you so blithely slander. Are they entitled to by payed as much as a hollywood star that mouths words? Or as much as a sports start that gets to play ball for big bucks?

They put their careers, reputations and quite a bit of their own cash on the line to bring new drugs to market against all odds. My boss, a former director of Glaxo has most of his personal worth tied up in his own company where they seed money to pharma startups.

Did you know that last year there were only EIGHT new chemical entities sent to the FDA?

Your socialist rants would be more welcome on the Ben and Jerry's message board. Ooops, I forgot they sold out to.

[Overtaxed]

with all the effort that the Colombian drug cartels do with cocaine and grass...why don't they start a drug copy-cat program and sell US legal drugs at cut-rate prices?

I suppose Colombian drug cartels are going to do the raw materials, finished product, and storage stability testing according to GLP and GMP guidelines, right?